"Mr. Giddings, you don't need that stuff, and no one on board wants you to have it."
With a swift movement, Halstead dropped the vial into one of his pockets.
"You confounded thief!" hissed Gaston Giddings.
Swift as a flash, in his rage, the young man sprang at the youthful skipper of the yacht.
"You'll give that back to me, or go overboard!" snarled the victim of the drug habit.
"If you get it, it'll be after I'm overboard," snapped back Tom.
In another instant Giddings's fingers were wrapped in a tight hold about Tom's throat. The drug maniac seemed possessed, for the instant, of the strength of half a dozen men.
The young skipper himself was no weakling, but now he had his hands full.
Even had he been so minded, he could not have called for help. Backward and forward the pair struggled for a few seconds. Then the young skipper found himself growing weaker for lack of air.